Originally posted by noticingthemistake
Good point and I agree Az. But I don’t think that's what the author meant by thinking musically. Knowing about the composer’s state of mind, lifestyle and time period is more like thinking historically or telepathic. Yes beneficial to the musician if he/she is playing a piece, knowing will undoubtively improve the interpretation of how to play the piece.
[Edited by noticingthemistake on 08-20-2003 at 11:28 AM]

wat i was goin to say is, that when playing a piece from someone like mozart or chopin or whomever ,it IS esential to know what the composer was goin to say and why. of course you can just say "screw him - he´s dead anyway" and play it the way YOU feel its right, but that is pretty selfish. that way you take away the freedom of the composer to serve your own freedom. i mean - i sometimes also feel like goin on the street and punch an old lady in the face so that she swallows her teeth - she cannot realy defend herself. aswell as a dead composer cannot defend himself. there are things in music that are meant to be performed in a certain way, and you cannot simply ignore it. that was what i meant by knowing about a certain composer and his ambitions.
we all know that the note-system is far from beeing accurate and perfect. it leaves alot of room for interpretation and thats what makes the difference in performance. but be sure to keep it within the limits.

think about it.. what if you composed a piece and you know how it should sound like and write it down. then someone comes and plays it completely different cuz he feels like it. i personally would not be too happy about it.